The battle ended soon after Sirius' plan kicked into action. When all the
Death Eaters were either dead, taken prisoner, or had run away, the members
of the Order of the Phoenix all joined together (with the exception of
Sirius) and drove the Dementors away with the Patronus charm. The first
battle had ended, and the Order of the Phoenix had won.
'Nice one, Sirius', Tonks cried, giving him a high-five and grinning. Once the commotion had begun, she had easily freed herself and joined the fray.
'It went better than I expected', Sirius admitted, looking pleased.
'What's going on?' A stunned voice asked from behind them.
Sirius turned, and saw Oliver Wood standing in front of the trees, looking shell-shocked.
'Why is there a body that looks distinctly like mine lying beside the fire?' He asked, pale and worried-looking.
'Come on', Sirius called, indicating for everyone to return to Helga's Hollow, 'let's show him.'
Remus and Bill led the ten captured Death Eaters, who were bound by magical rope from Remus' wand.
'Remus, make sure those pieces of scum can't hear what I'm about to say.' Sirius ordered.
Remus nodded, and with Bill's help, he placed a Deafening Charm on the captives.
Sirius strode across the hollow to the decapitated body of Oliver Wood. He pulled the cloak off the corpse, and kicked it over onto its back.
'Urgh!' Oliver choked, 'I think I'm gonna be sick. That's gross! How did you do that?'
The body had Oliver torso, and one of his legs. Instead of arms, it had large, grey wings, and its other leg was skinny, and ended in a talon.
'Three stunners hit you, so you were knocked out for hours. We locked you in the cottage so you couldn't come out and ruin the plan.
'There were pigeons nesting in the windows of the cottage', Sirius explained, looking away from the disgusting sight, 'and I remembered Harry telling me something about Polyjuice Potion-when Hermione took it, and had added a cat hair, she ended up with fur and a cat's tail. So I thought, maybe it can work the other way around. Snape had some Polyjuice with him, and we force-fed the pigeon, after adding a hair from your robes to the potion. It turned into a half-Oliver, half-pigeon. We gave it a Sleeping Draught, so it wouldn't be scared, then pretended to be doing a spell to bring people back from the dead. We pretended that we were sacrificing a member of the group-that was the only authentic way we could think of, though completely unfair to the pigeon, poor thing.'
'You should have seen its face', Snape added drily, 'your hair and eyes, but a beak instead of a mouth or nose.'
Oliver turned slightly green, and dashed behind the cottage. Bill quickly cast a spell to get rid of the pigeon's body, and Eva cleaned up all the dried blood.
'Do you remember when we were at school, the Seeker on the Ravenclaw team was always fouling James, and managed to get away with it?' Sirius murmured to Remus.
'Yeah, why?' Remus asked interestedly, poking one of the Death Eaters hard, as he struggled against the ropes.
'D'you remember his name?' Sirius asked quietly.
'Yeah. Krane, wasn't it? Jacob Krane. Jinxed James one day, to stop him being able to play in the next match. James had barely recovered in time. He always was a jealous little worm, I didn't pay much attention to him. What about him?'
'I killed him.'
Remus almost let the magical ropes fall, he was so astonished. 'Y-you killed him?' He hissed, his jaw dropping, 'you mean he was here...tonight?'
Sirius nodded. 'He appeared to be one of the men in charge. I thought I'd seen him fighting for Voldemort the last time, but I wasn't entirely sure. I was sort of looking for him.'
'Why?' Remus looked puzzled.
'Because James needed to get some revenge', Sirius replied, smiling ruefully, 'he's the only one I killed. I mean, I was very limited, having no magic. All I could do was wound or kill, and I thought we'd be better off with that conniving git dead. That way, his men had no leader.'
'I understand', Remus said, nodding, 'but did you see what Snape was doing?'
'Yeah', Sirius replied grimly, 'I'm gonna talk to him as soon as Oliver comes back.'
*****************
When Oliver returned, wiping his mouth on the sleeve of his robes and smiling weakly, Sirius called the little group to Order. 'Stick the prisoner in the cottage, and blindfold them', Sirius ordered Bill, who did so at once. Firstly, he turned to Snape.
'What the hell were you doing out there?' He asked softly, dangerously.
'Eliminating the enemy', Snape replied tersely, glaring at a point somewhere over Sirius' shoulder.
'Eliminating the enemy', Sirius repeated angrily, 'ELIMINATING THE ENEMY? Don't you see? By doing that, you were making yourself every bit as bad as them! You took at least a dozen lives out there, and tortured the rest! Haven't you heard of Stunning? Or Limb-Locking? Or maybe transfiguring them into beetles?'
'You killed one too', Snape hissed furiously, 'I saw you!'
'I'm not denying it', Sirius responded quickly, 'but all I had was a knife, and that was settling an old score. You were just murdering everyone in your path, when you had the ability to disable them without making them corpses! Still working the way Voldemort taught you, eh?'
'How dare you!' Snape cried, flinching at the mention of Voldemort's name.
'I dare because I am charge of you lot now, and I won't have you acting that way!' Sirius retorted, 'quite aside from the fact that Dumbledore can't abide the use of the Unforgivable Curses, those people could have been useful to us!'
Snape looked as though he was going to argue back, but then Sirius saw his hand move quickly to his arm-to the place where the Dark Mark was burned into his skin. The Potionsmaster bowed his head, and muttered, 'forgive me. I will not use such tactics again on this mission, without your express orders, Black.'
While there was a hint of sarcasm in Snape's words, Sirius decided to accept them, while everybody else looked on in astonishment. 'Good. Thank you, Snape, I'll hold you to that. Now, we've wasted far too much time in this beautiful hollow. All of you, pack everything you can, and prepare the prisoners for travel-I'm sure they won't get far in a tight circle like that. And keep them blindfolded-remember, they can't see Snape! We depart in two hours!'
And so, the triumphant party of enemies and friends left Helga's Hollow, the last safe haven before the horrors of Azkaban.
'Nice one, Sirius', Tonks cried, giving him a high-five and grinning. Once the commotion had begun, she had easily freed herself and joined the fray.
'It went better than I expected', Sirius admitted, looking pleased.
'What's going on?' A stunned voice asked from behind them.
Sirius turned, and saw Oliver Wood standing in front of the trees, looking shell-shocked.
'Why is there a body that looks distinctly like mine lying beside the fire?' He asked, pale and worried-looking.
'Come on', Sirius called, indicating for everyone to return to Helga's Hollow, 'let's show him.'
Remus and Bill led the ten captured Death Eaters, who were bound by magical rope from Remus' wand.
'Remus, make sure those pieces of scum can't hear what I'm about to say.' Sirius ordered.
Remus nodded, and with Bill's help, he placed a Deafening Charm on the captives.
Sirius strode across the hollow to the decapitated body of Oliver Wood. He pulled the cloak off the corpse, and kicked it over onto its back.
'Urgh!' Oliver choked, 'I think I'm gonna be sick. That's gross! How did you do that?'
The body had Oliver torso, and one of his legs. Instead of arms, it had large, grey wings, and its other leg was skinny, and ended in a talon.
'Three stunners hit you, so you were knocked out for hours. We locked you in the cottage so you couldn't come out and ruin the plan.
'There were pigeons nesting in the windows of the cottage', Sirius explained, looking away from the disgusting sight, 'and I remembered Harry telling me something about Polyjuice Potion-when Hermione took it, and had added a cat hair, she ended up with fur and a cat's tail. So I thought, maybe it can work the other way around. Snape had some Polyjuice with him, and we force-fed the pigeon, after adding a hair from your robes to the potion. It turned into a half-Oliver, half-pigeon. We gave it a Sleeping Draught, so it wouldn't be scared, then pretended to be doing a spell to bring people back from the dead. We pretended that we were sacrificing a member of the group-that was the only authentic way we could think of, though completely unfair to the pigeon, poor thing.'
'You should have seen its face', Snape added drily, 'your hair and eyes, but a beak instead of a mouth or nose.'
Oliver turned slightly green, and dashed behind the cottage. Bill quickly cast a spell to get rid of the pigeon's body, and Eva cleaned up all the dried blood.
'Do you remember when we were at school, the Seeker on the Ravenclaw team was always fouling James, and managed to get away with it?' Sirius murmured to Remus.
'Yeah, why?' Remus asked interestedly, poking one of the Death Eaters hard, as he struggled against the ropes.
'D'you remember his name?' Sirius asked quietly.
'Yeah. Krane, wasn't it? Jacob Krane. Jinxed James one day, to stop him being able to play in the next match. James had barely recovered in time. He always was a jealous little worm, I didn't pay much attention to him. What about him?'
'I killed him.'
Remus almost let the magical ropes fall, he was so astonished. 'Y-you killed him?' He hissed, his jaw dropping, 'you mean he was here...tonight?'
Sirius nodded. 'He appeared to be one of the men in charge. I thought I'd seen him fighting for Voldemort the last time, but I wasn't entirely sure. I was sort of looking for him.'
'Why?' Remus looked puzzled.
'Because James needed to get some revenge', Sirius replied, smiling ruefully, 'he's the only one I killed. I mean, I was very limited, having no magic. All I could do was wound or kill, and I thought we'd be better off with that conniving git dead. That way, his men had no leader.'
'I understand', Remus said, nodding, 'but did you see what Snape was doing?'
'Yeah', Sirius replied grimly, 'I'm gonna talk to him as soon as Oliver comes back.'
*****************
When Oliver returned, wiping his mouth on the sleeve of his robes and smiling weakly, Sirius called the little group to Order. 'Stick the prisoner in the cottage, and blindfold them', Sirius ordered Bill, who did so at once. Firstly, he turned to Snape.
'What the hell were you doing out there?' He asked softly, dangerously.
'Eliminating the enemy', Snape replied tersely, glaring at a point somewhere over Sirius' shoulder.
'Eliminating the enemy', Sirius repeated angrily, 'ELIMINATING THE ENEMY? Don't you see? By doing that, you were making yourself every bit as bad as them! You took at least a dozen lives out there, and tortured the rest! Haven't you heard of Stunning? Or Limb-Locking? Or maybe transfiguring them into beetles?'
'You killed one too', Snape hissed furiously, 'I saw you!'
'I'm not denying it', Sirius responded quickly, 'but all I had was a knife, and that was settling an old score. You were just murdering everyone in your path, when you had the ability to disable them without making them corpses! Still working the way Voldemort taught you, eh?'
'How dare you!' Snape cried, flinching at the mention of Voldemort's name.
'I dare because I am charge of you lot now, and I won't have you acting that way!' Sirius retorted, 'quite aside from the fact that Dumbledore can't abide the use of the Unforgivable Curses, those people could have been useful to us!'
Snape looked as though he was going to argue back, but then Sirius saw his hand move quickly to his arm-to the place where the Dark Mark was burned into his skin. The Potionsmaster bowed his head, and muttered, 'forgive me. I will not use such tactics again on this mission, without your express orders, Black.'
While there was a hint of sarcasm in Snape's words, Sirius decided to accept them, while everybody else looked on in astonishment. 'Good. Thank you, Snape, I'll hold you to that. Now, we've wasted far too much time in this beautiful hollow. All of you, pack everything you can, and prepare the prisoners for travel-I'm sure they won't get far in a tight circle like that. And keep them blindfolded-remember, they can't see Snape! We depart in two hours!'
And so, the triumphant party of enemies and friends left Helga's Hollow, the last safe haven before the horrors of Azkaban.
